Namibia’s Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton broke the record for the fastest T20I hundred at Kathmandu in the series opener of the Nepal-Namibia-Netherlands T20 tri-series, reaching the milestone off just 33 balls.
Coming to the crease with his side in trouble at 62-3 in the 11th over, Jan Frylinck dismissed by an ungainly fumbling stumping, Loftie-Eaton needed just a single legal ball to get his eye in. Pushing a straight single off Nepal skipper Rohit Paudel to retain the strike, Loftie-Eaton hooked Gulshan Jha first ball over fine leg for six. The burly left-hander took two more boundaries off that over, going to 18 off 6 with an audacious reverse slog-sweep over fine leg for six.
Ably supported by Malan Kruger, who struck eight boundaries himself en route to an unbeaten half-century, Loftie-Eaton conducted a controlled demolition of the home attack in a display of uncontainable innovation and aggression. In an innings that contained 8 sixes, perhaps the most impressive shot was a reverse sweep off left arm slinger Avinash Bohara – laced through a barely perceptible gap behind square for four. The shot set the tone for what was to follow as Loftie-Eaton ran through a full repertoire of scoops, reverses, dabs, muscled pulls, booming drives, and knee-dropping slog-sweeps – each new innovation frustrating Paudel’s every effort to set field.
Loftie Eaton’s exploits were all the more remarkable as his hitting was done on a TU International square where the three sides had struggled to score batting first, just one 200+ first innings score posted over the course of the preceding CWC League 2 ODI series. But for the record setting ball the pitch hardly mattered, a full toss from offpsinner DS Airee that anyone could have hit for a boundary, floating into middle stump and …read more
Source:: The Island